Spyro Gyra's first album for MCA after their longtime label, GRP-Crescendo, was absorbed into its corporate parent, 1990's
Fast Forward carries the curious band subtitle "featuring
Jay Beckenstein." Saxophonist
Beckenstein has certainly always been the band's leader, writing a good chunk of the material and producing the albums, but given that the lineup is basically unchanged from the previous few
Spyro Gyra albums, the new nomenclature is puzzling. It also goes against
Spyro Gyra's entire musical aesthetic, as the group's unabashedly commercial and melodic style works against the traditional jazz concept of soloists and sidemen. Everyone on
Fast Forward plays the melody, the whole melody, and nothing but the melody, with no improvisations or sidebars. The resulting tunes are unfailingly pleasant -- there's nothing here that would cause anyone to leap immediately to the forward skip button on their CD player -- but this relentlessly safe smooth jazz is unfortunately deficient on memorable songs, expressive playing, or foot-tapping tunes. It doesn't really "feature" anyone in particular. ~ Stewart Mason